Hope and Mercy

** Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;…Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in thee. ** Psalm 33:18,22

Hope.

It has been said that we can live without food or water for a certain amount of days. But without hope, no one survives.

–To live without hope is to cease to live– says one Russian author

I actually tried to leave my husband after 3 years of marriage. I had lost hope that anything would change, that we would ever be happy together. But then he turned his life over to the LORD. A few months later, I did as well. That was when I first felt hope that our marriage could be saved. It took years of hard work and humbled spirits, but that initial hope kept me going for a long time. We were counting on God’s mercy to NOT give us what we deserved. This month we are celebrating our 41st wedding anniversary. God’s mercy and hope has brought us past those early years.

Hope.

Hope that God can make things better.

Hope that He will walk through every hardship we face here with us.

Hope that He will help and protect us.

Hope of eternity at his side.

We hope in His Name and in His salvation.

We hope in His mercy. That He will treat us way better than we deserve.

A beautiful circle…God shows us mercy the day of our salvation…We then have hope…Hope that makes us aware of what COULD have happened to us…which gives us more hope…knowing the real punishment for our old sin…we bask in his mercy…knowing we do not want to sin anymore…fearing God’s ability to remove that mercy… then we are filled with more hope as He daily bathes us in more mercy.

The more we trust in Him, the more we understand His power,the more mercy we see.

The more we understand His mercy, the more we lean on Him and give Him more sovereignty in our lives.

Because HOPE tells us that what happens here is temporary, what will happen there, at His side, will be eternal.

Hope. It lifts our burdens, and helps us walk through another day. It tells us that one day, everything is going to be okay.

Hope and Mercy. They are connected. They are our life tools. They are who He is.